1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which is capable of performing image processing on input image data, an image input apparatus, a method of controlling the image processing apparatus, a method of controlling the image input apparatus, an image input system, and a storage medium storing programs for implementing these methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image input system has been proposed, which is comprised of an image input apparatus such as a scanner having an original feeding function of continuously feeding originals, and an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer (PC) connected to the scanner via a cable or the like.
On a scanner side of an image input system of this kind, in general, after a first sheet of a bundle of originals has been fed and image data from that original sheet has then been input by an image input section, an image processing section performs image correction processing on the input image by adjusting the brightness and/or contrast thereof or binarizing the image data.
In this image correcting processing, in a mode for inputting multivalued gray or color images, multivalued image data is input from an original, the input image data is subjected to a gamma correction, which corresponds to a set contrast, and a difference corresponding to a set brightness is added to the multivalued data. On the other hand, in a mode for inputting binary images, multivalued image data is input from an original, the input image data is then transformed into binary data using a slice level corresponding to a set brightness as a boundary without adjusting the contrast and brightness.
The image data thus subjected to the image correction processing on the scanner side is transmitted to a personal computer (PC) side, where the image data is stored in a hard disk as, for example, an image file.
In this image input system, however, the image correcting processing including the brightness and contrast adjustment and binarization is executed only on the scanner side. Thus, if the image data obtained after the image input and corrections does not have a brightness and/or contrast desired by the user, the setting for the brightness and/or contrast has to be changed, and a first sheet of the original bundle has to be set in an original feeding means again to input the image. This operation has to be repeated until the optimal brightness and/or contrast is obtained. Therefore, the conventional image input operation is inefficient.